Vines, thorns, crowns and pelicans

 In 1911, after the death of his wife, Mary Isabel Jenkins, Michael Jenkins commissioned an extensive renovation of Corpus Christi Church.  As part of the redecoration, the old windows of the aisles were replaced by 10 new English stained-glass windows, designed and fabricated by the John Hardman and Co. of London and Birmingham, England. 

Filled with elaborate foliated work, the new windows symbolize the Holy Eucharist.  One window shows a conventional treatment of the Vine, the emblem of the Eucharist.  The next window shows the Holy Thorn intertwined at regular intervals with a golden crown to signify the heavenly reward of earthly suffering.  This window pattern alternates in the ten main aisle windows. 

The traceries above the thorn & vine windows show six other emblems of the Eucharist: the Lamb of God, a pelican in her piety, a sheaf of wheat, a chalice, and finally a lamp burning as if it were in honor of the Sacrament. 

Lamb of God

Sheaf of wheat

Burning Lamp

Chalice

Pelican in her piety

The image of the pelican “in piety” was an often used symbol for the Jenkins family.  E.g., the motif of the pelican piercing its breast to feed its young with its blood was used to decorate one of the early chalices used in the church.

First and foremost, the pelican is seen as the symbol of symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ on the cross (because he gave his blood for others) as well as the Eucharist (because it represents Christ's blood and provides spiritual nourishment). 

The Physiologus (a Greek didactic text written in 2nd cent. AD) told that the pelican is very fond of its brood, but when the young ones begin to grow they rebel against the male bird and provoke his anger, so that he kills them; the mother returns to the nest in three days, sits on the dead birds, pours tier blood over them, and they feed on the blood.  The physical reality which probably resulted in this legend is that the long beak of the pelican has a sack or pouch which serves as a container for the small fish that it feeds its young. In the process of feeding them, the bird presses the sack back against its neck in such a way that it seems to open its breast with its bill. The reddish tinge of its breast plumage and the redness of the tip of its beak prompted the legend that it actually drew blood from its own breast.

Thomas Aquinas used the allegory in his 'Adoro Te Devote'

Pelican of mercy, Jesus, Lord and God,

Cleanse me, wretched sinner, in Thy Precious Blood:

Blood where one drop for human-kind outpoured

Might from all transgression have the world restored.

By extension, the Pelican is also the personification of two virtues that were exceptionally important to the Jenkins family, i.e. “charity,” and “devotion to family.”   The pelican feeding its young is an emblem of charity.  Thus the pelican was said to be “in her piety,” a word derived from the latin pietas, which was one of the chief virtues of the Romans.  Cicero defined it as the quality "which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations," i.e. familial affection and patriotism.

Bibliography
Hall, James. Dictionary of Subject and Symbols in Art. Boulder: Westview, 2008.
Raithwood, Elizabeth. "The Medieval Pelican." Elizabeth Raithwood's Home page. n.d. http://donna.hrynkiw.net/sca/pelican/ (accessed May 13, 2015).
Wikipedia contributors. "Adore te devote." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adoro_te_devote&oldid=641531406 (accessed May 13, 2015).
—. "Pelican." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pelican&oldid=660271020 (accessed May 13, 2015).
—. "Physiologus." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Physiologus&oldid=648772577 (accessed May 13, 2015).